Allow individuals to supplement their incomes through sale of produce grown at home or on other urban or suburban land

By The Sustainable Economies Law Center

Excerpts:

The Sustainable Economies Law Center will soon seek a California legislator to author a bill in 2013 to reduce legal barriers to the cultivation and sale of homegrown and locally-grown produce. We have posted a summary of the bill here in order to seek feedback.

Purposes and Summary

The purposes of the California Homegrown Food Act are to:

1) Increase access to fresh, locally sourced produce for all Californians regardless of location and other socioeconomic limitations;

2) Allow individuals to supplement their incomes through sale of produce grown at home or on other urban or suburban land; and

3) Reduce the carbon footprint of our food system by enabling the increased cultivation of produce in or near places it is consumed.

Assemblyman Mike Gatto (D-Los Angeles) introduced The California Homemade Food Act (AB 1616) to help constituent Mark Stambler and other micro food businesses throughout the state. By creating a pathway for the legal sale of safe homemade food products, California can help these very small businesses prosper — and foster the healthy/local food movement. April, 2012.

Thanks to everyone who wrote to and called Assemblymembers, Senators and the Governor! Your efforts were instrumental in getting the bill passed through the various steps in the legislature. We at SELC can’t wait to buy homemade food and support small-scale food enterprises with legal resources to start cottage food operations.

Now that Governor Brown has signed AB 1616, it will go into effect in January, but in the meantime, we at SELC will be hard at work creating legal resources for small-scale food enterprises. See our Food page for more info about what we’re up to. And if you like what you read, consider making a donation to sustain our efforts!

Governor Rick Snyder says the state should do more to deal with blight and encourage urban farming in cities with lots of vacant land.

By Rick Pluta
Michigan State Public Radio
Nov 28, 2012

It was part of Governor Snyder’s special message on energy and the environment. The governor says too much abandoned property in Flint, Detroit, and other cities is going to waste when it could be put to a new use.

“And all I’ve seen in my two years as governor is a lot of discussion about right-to-far, and urban farming,” he says.

He says it’s time to settle issues dealing with zoning rules, pesticide use, and other barriers to using urban space for agriculture.